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Mechanics
Introduction to the I Ching System Silk, Steam, and Steel runs off the I Ching System, ''a randomization mechanic very loosely based on traditional Chinese coin divination. Whenever a character wishes to do something at which may fail - outrun an assassin, convince an old merchant he is his long-lost nephew, and so on - a skill check is rolled. The player will toss a number of coins equal to the total number of points in the relavent skill, and read each as tails or heads: failure or success. ''Yin ''or ''Yang. For every coin that lands heads (Yang) ''side up, one success is gained, with total heads being the number of successes. For example, if a player throws eight coins and five turn up heads, he would count that as five successes. Whether it's five out of five or five out of eight or five out of twelve is irrelevant. In most cases, players will be rolling checks opposed by NPC's, who will be throwing either the same skill or a complimentary one. For example, in a gunfight, Sharpshooting is usually opposed by Evasion; in the argument that triggered the gunfight, Bravado is opposed by Bravado. The player and Narrator will each throw a number of coins for their respective characters; the one with the more successes wins. Thus, if the player gets five successes on his Sharpshooting roll and the NPC only gets four successes on his Evasion, the NPC has been shot, and damage will be rolled. In the event of ties, the Narrator will flip a coin, with the player callling heads or tails.If the player calls it correctly, he wins; if not, the NPC wins. Combat Mechanics COMBAT The Combat Round: The combat round is fairly simple, and generally consists of two phases: a movement action and an attack action. A movement action may simply be running across the room to strike your foe, or may be a more elaborate maneuver; scaling the side of a building, leaping over a rooftop, jumping off of your horse and onto your antagonist's horse, and so on. In some cases, movement actions might may require a skill check, such as making an Acrobatics check to scale the side of the building in a single round. An attack action represents a single attack; the thrust of a sword, a gunshot, a flying kick. Certain talents (such as Gungslinger and Double Strike) allow combatants to make multiple attacks in a single round. ''Types of Movement Actions: Acrobatics: ''The acrobatics skill is used when moving in unorthodox ways, such as climbing, falling, and jumping. Typically, the Narrator will set a flat difficulty rating depending on the distance traveled, rather than having it be part of an opposed check. ''Example: Blind Eagle is perched on a second story rooftop with a rifle, taking pot shots at the heroes. Flying Fox is getting pretty sick it, decides to scale the building. Because Flying Fox has the Spider Climb talent, she can cover five vertical feet with every success, meaning she needs four successes to scale the building. She rolls acrobatics, and gets six in total; leaping off of a rain barrel, onto an awning, climbing a window sill, and finally vaulting herself over the edge of the roof, she ascends the building in the blink of an eye, and makes her attack against Blind Eagle. Athletics: ''The Athletics skills determines a character's base movement and running speed. A character's base movement is Athletics x 10 feet per movement action. ''Stealth: ''In the heat of combat, attackers may attempt to disappear into the fog of war to sneak up on a foe. Doing so normally requires a point of Breath, unless they have the Fleeting Shadow talent. ''Example: Yet another gunfight has broken out in the White Dragon Inn, this time with the Golden Bell Gang. Jade Butterfly wants to move in for a sneak attack. Drawing the straightsword concealed within her parasol, she drops behind the bar while one of her foes is distracted. She rolls her Stealth, and he rolls his Awareness; she gets seven successes, and he gets five. Creeping along the edge of the bar while bullets fly through the air, she is able to maneuver directly behind him, and stabs him through the back with her straightsword. She rolls her attack, plus the bonus for the Sneak Attack talent. Types of Attack Actions: Attacking: When one combatant attacks another, he rolls his appropriate attack skill (Melee, Sharpshooting, etc.), plus whatever equipment/otherwise bonuses he has. The defender rolls the appropriate defense skill; either Evasion to dodge, or Hand to Hand/Melee to Parry. If the attacker hits, damage as dealt according to the table below. Example: One-Eyed Ogre and The Living Asura are fighting in the streets of Hong Kong. One-Eyed Ogre extends the collapsing hook swords he had hidden in his boots, and Living Asura draws a pair of hatchets from his belt. One-Eyed Ogre rolls his Melee skill to attack, plus the finesse bonus of the hook swords, for a total of ten coins. Living Asura rolls his melee skills to parry, plus the finesse bonus of the hatchets, for a total of eight coins. One-Eyed Ogre gets seven successes, and Living Asura gets five. One-Eyed Ogre traps and sweeps the hatchets out of the way with one hook, leaving his foe wide open for a stab to the neck with the pommel of the other hook. '' ''Tripping: ''Rather than dealing damage, a combatant may choose to hurl his opponent to the ground. Generally speaking, this is done to make use of the environment in some way; tossing foes off over balconies, out of windows, and so on. Trip attempts are made via the Hand to Hand (or in some special cases, Melee) skill. If the attackers goal is only to deal damage rather than to reposition his foe (ie, suplexing someone through a dinner table), resolve as a normal hand to hand attack, and assume the defender recovers his feet. ''Example: Sanguine Clarity and Burning Blade are dueling on the deck of an airship over the skies of Shanghai. Sanguine Clarity has maneuvered Burning Blade to the edge of the airship, and decides to throw him off. They make an an opposed Hand to Hand check, in which she gets seven successes, and Burning Blade gets six. Sweeping his foot up to off balance him, she seizes him by the pant leg and collar, and tosses him off the railing. The slain assassin lands in some unfortunate soul's living room in the city below. Pinning: ''A combatant may also attempt to restrain another via a pin, joint lock, or otherwise grappling hold. To do so, make a Hand to Hand check, opposed by Evasion/Hand to Hand. If successful, your foe is successfully pinned, and the only action they may take is attempting to break free via a Hand to Hand check on their round, opposed by your initial successes. So long as a foe is pinned, they subtract the successes of the Pin attempt from any defense rolls they make, making them an easy target. ''Example: Doctor Hu and Flying Fox are in combat with the deadly assassin Iron Claw. Enacting the strategy of “I'll hold his arms while you hit him”, Doctor Hu attempts to pin Iron Claw. They roll an opposed Hand to Hand check; Doctor Hu gets six success, and Iron Claw gets five. Doctor Hu twists both of Iron Claw's arms behind his back, immobilizing with a double shoulder lock. Iron Claw attempts to escape on his round, but only rolls four successes, and is thus still pinned. On Flying Fox's round, she decides to finish Iron Claw off with a flying kick to the throat. Iron Claw can still attempt to dodge, but his Evasion is reduced from it's normal eight to a measly two, thanks to Doctor Hu's six successes on the pin. He rolls both, and gets one success. Flying Fox, conversely, rolls seven successes on her attack, scoring a critical hit against Iron Claw's trachea. Ouch. '' Mounted Combat: Frequently, heroes may find themselves doing battle against foes whilst mounted on horses or autocycles (or both). For mounted combat sequences, we recommend the narrator structure it such that all combatants on both sides are mounted; perhaps the heroes are given chase to foes fleeing on horseback, perhaps they were ambushed by an autocycle gang on the mean streets of Beijing. In mounted combat, it can be easy to get overly bogged down in details of speed and distance. As such, rather than keeping track of where everyone is and how fast they're going, assume all combatants are moving at close to the same speed (typically 35 to 40 miles per hour, the top speed of both a running horse and a steam-powered autocycle), and keep track of their relative position to each other. Movement actions are thus a matter of repositioning oneself to set up the next attack. Repositioning generally requires a Piloting/Animal Handling check, opposed by the target's. Examples include catching up to a foe you are chasing, gaining ground on one who is chasing you, or pulling ahead of a foe who are you side by side with. Players may also wish to leap from vehicle to vehicle, which requires an Acrobatics check. Attack actions are generally the same as on foot, with the added factor of being able to dismount foes. To pull someone off of a horse (or autocycle) is resolved the same way as trip attempt in foot combat. ''Repositioning: ''A combatant may attempt to move ahead of, pulling up alongside, or drop behind another combatant to set up an attack. To do so is a movement action, and requires an opposed Piloting/Animal Handling check. ''Example: The Red Pheonix Gang and White Tiger Gang are at war in the southwest corner of Beijing. Shooting Star, the leader of the Red Pheonix gang, is being chased through the streets by several members of the White Tigers. Ripper Zhang wants to catch up with Shooting Star and attack her with his signature weapon, a whirling chainsaw-like blade. The narrator makes a piloting check for Ripper, and Shooting Star makes one as well; Ripper gets five successes, Shooting Star only gets four. As such, Ripper is able to gain ground to get close enough to make his attack, gunning his engine to tear across the city streets. He rolls his attack, and Shooting star rolls her Evasion; Ripper only gets three successes, to hit, whereas Shooting star gets six. Leaning off to the far side of her bike, Shooting Star dodges the deadly blow. Dismounting: '' A combatant may attempt to pull his a foe from his vehicle, knocking him to the ground. Doing so is resolved as a Trip attempt (see above). Generally speaking, a dismounted foe is considered out of the combat, left in the dust. ''Example: On her turn, Shooting Star decides she wants to remove Ripper Chang from his bike. Unraveling the chain whip from around from her waist, makes a Trip attempt against Ripper. She rolls her attack, and gets seven successes, where as Ripper only gets five on his parry roll. Though he attempts to intercept the whip, it wraps around his neck, and with a jerk Shooting Star pulls him from his bike. At this juncture, the Narrator gives Shooting Star the option to drop the whip and let Ripper go, or take a -2 penalty on Piloting checks to drag him behind her bike and deal damage. Shooting Star, being the vindictive sort, chooses to deal damage. Not wanting to complicate things further, the Narrator sets the damage value of being dragged behind a motorcycle via chainwhip as the same as Shooting Star's normal attack damage for the chainwhip. Damaging Vehicles: ''As an attack action, a combatant may attempt to damage his foe's vehicle. A damaged autocycle or injured horse is no longer capable of moving, and is rapidly left behind. In some cases, it may even lead to a spectacular crash. The defender rolls Animal Handling (if riding a horse or animal driven cart) or Piloting (if piloting a mechanical vehicle) to defend. It is generally not nescessary to roll damage; a flat tire is a flat tire, and an injured horse won't run. ''Example: '' ''Now that she has dealt with Ripper Chang, Shooting Star moves on to dealing with the next member of the White Tigers. She successfully repositions herself (as described above), to get right next to the boiler on Thunder Hand's autocycle. Pulling a hand grenade from her belt, she sticks in the pipes of his bike. She rolls Explosives for the attack, and Steel Tiger rolls Piloting to maneuver his bike away. She gets eight successes, and Thunder Hand only gets four. The grenade goes off seconds later, detonating the boiler in a massive explosion that leaves Steel Tiger badly injured and his bike completely trashed. He is no longer a participant in this combat. Switching Vehicles: ''As a movement action, a combatant may make an Acrobatics check (opposed by Animal Handling/Piloting) to board another vehicle, leaping onto a foe's mount or into the cab of a moving truck for close-quarters combat. ''Example: There is only one White Tiger left; their leader, Steel Lion. On his past round, Steel Lion successfully shot out Shooting Star's tires, and her bike is rapidly coming to a halt. As Steel Lion moves in for the kill, Shooting Star leaps from her autocycle onto his, brandishing a saber. She rolls Acrobatics, and Steel Lion rolls Piloting to avoid her. Shooting Star gets five successes, and Steel Lion gets three; with a war cry, she lands perched on Steel Lion's handlebars, Saber in hand, ready to strike. She swings for his neck, and the attack is resolved normally. '' '''Stunts:' In combat, Silk, Steam, and Steel casts characters in the roll of both tactician and choreographer. As such, players should be encouraged to execute actions in exciting and clever ways. These actions are called stunts; ''when a player executes a stunt, the Narrator should award bonus coins to hit or damage based on how cool it was. ''Example: One Eyed Ogre is still locked in combat with Living Asura, and has dropped his hook swords in favor of his Horse-Cutting Saber. Having drawn the massive sword off of his back, he moves in for the next kill. One Eyed Ogre comes in with a rising cut, but the cut is only a feint; as hi sword sweeps along the ground, he catches a stone and flings it between Living Asura's eyes. While his foe is blinded, he comes transitions to an overhead cut. They roll attack and defense, and the Narrator awards One Eyed Ogre two bonus coins to the attack roll for the clever feint. Living Asura gets five successes, and One Eyed Ogre gets six. His feint worked, and the sword comes crashing down. ''Combination Stunts: ''For really big attacks, the heroes should be encouraged to combine their skills into combination stunts. To start execute a combination, the characters must be on the same initiative, meaning the the faster one must drop his initiative to the slower. For every character in the combination after the first, a bonus coin should be added to all rolls involved in the stunt (+1 for a two person combo, +2 for a three person, etc.), plus whatever bonus to Narrator feels appropriate for creativity.